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CONVERSATIONS | MAYO

Thu 7 Jun

MAYO has been making waves for the past years in (and around) Amsterdam. This eventually landed her a spot on Dekmantel's Selectors Festival in Croatia coming August. It's safe to say things are going well. But before that time comes, she'll be playing at RADION Friday 15th, with Borusiade and Mercal. In light of her upcoming gig, we asked MAYO a couple of questions for our Conversations series.

Tell us a little bit where it all started for you?

A couple of years ago I used to be the drummer in a band. We had tons of fun playing together, but ended up splitting. Simultaneously, I grew tired of being dependent on others to create music. So I decided to DJ for the time being and thought I might run into someone to start a new project with. My first gigs were at Aangebrand (R.I.P), a super awesome party with an art exhibition. That made it stand out more was the fact that at the beginning of the evening, a band would play, followed by various of DJs.

Where did you get into contact with the music you play now?

I never liked House and Techno until I started DJing and going to the clubs more. I grew up with lots of Rock & Roll and Metal, never giving electronic music any chance. The moment where I started to get really into it was when I was at festival and heard a dj play some really heavy hitting Techno, on that sound system, my friends, the crowd; everybody was feeling it. That energy really struck me. From that moment I went right in trying to discover as much as I can.

What or who are some of your musical inspirations for DJing & producing music?

For DJing, just going out hearing some of my favourite DJs play and losing myself on youtube can already do a lot. For producing it’s a bit different, when I start a new project I try to feel how I feel within and see what vibe I’m in, then I take it from there and just start working. Most of the time I get stuck half way through and really hate the whole thing I made. I discard it for a while. Then there sometimes is this moment when I watch a video or hear a certain sound and realize something like that could totally fit into the track I made ages ago. Also art. I try to look at art everyday. The colours, the patterns, they can spark ideas right into my brain.

DJing is traditionally seen as a male-dominated field. What are your thoughts on the development to what we're currently seeing?

Things are changing, but there’s still a lot that can be done. For example I still see some festivals with zero women on the line up. I mean how is that even still possible!? There are so many talented women walking around this globe.

But not everything is terrible. I was actually reading a technical article on an electronic music website the other day, normally they only feature male artists when it comes to these things but here they have also asked some women about their opinion. Things like this make me very happy. And for example the Dekmantel crew are always doing a great job sliding a bunch of awesome woman into the picture.

Is there a specific record that describes your feeling towards the dancefloor, either if you're spinning records or are on the dancefloor itself?

This might change every once in a while but for now I think it’s these two below.

What's something (aside from equipment) you never leave without, going to a gig?

Besides essentials like my wallet, keys and ID, I always carry around a pocket knife and a bottle opener since you never know when its time for a good cheese and a nice bottle of wine!